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New Year's Preparations: Anti-terrorism Steps Taken

LAS VEGAS -- Federal officials will restrict flights in the airspace over the Strip on New Year's Eve because of heightened concerns that Las Vegas could be attacked, authorities said Monday.

Local police also are designing "target hardening" measures to boost ground security along the perimeter of the area where an estimated 300,000 revelers are expected to ring in 2004 Wednesday night.

Under one such measure, road closures typically implemented with flares and a single police officer will be augmented by blockades of multiple police vehicles to protect celebrators.

"We're looking at these areas and making sure they're not as vulnerable as maybe they have been in the past," Assistant Sheriff Mike Zagorski said of the target hardening measures.

The temporary flight restriction approved by the Department of Homeland Security on Monday was expected to be announced and formally posted by the Federal Aviation Administration this morning, according to officials with the Police Department and McCarran International Airport.

But details of the restriction were largely known to public safety agencies by Monday afternoon.

The no-fly rule would affect flights in a 10-mile radius around the center of McCarran from 9 p.m. New Year's Eve until 3 a.m. New Year's Day, said airport spokeswoman Debbie Millett. FAA administrative law states that pilots who violate such restrictions are in danger of being intercepted by law enforcement or military aircraft.

Commercial flights, as well as those of a military, police or medical rescue nature, would not be affected, Millett said.

Media and tour company flights would be. Millett said airport officials met with tour company officials Monday morning to explain the proposed restriction.

Fears that a terrorist plot could be hatched here on the Strip's busiest night of the year far outweighed concerns about the financial loss that could befall helicopter companies banned from late night sightseeing tours.

"I understand it's a very lucrative night for those companies," said Sheriff Bill Young, who supported the Homeland Security officials' decision.

"But a lot of people who have a lot of experience with terrorism have all come to the consensus that this is the wise and prudent thing to do. I am not taking one risk with our community's safety over economics. Economically, we will survive."

But helicopter tour companies were downplaying the restriction's effect on their business.

John Power, a spokesman for Heli USA, which offers night flights over the Strip, said the restriction would cause no trouble.

"We're fine. We're going to be able to complete our tours by 9 p.m.," Power said. The company had planned to complete tours by 11 p.m. anyway because of the fireworks on the Strip.

Public safety officials' anxiety about the prospect of a private aircraft being steered into a megaresort or being used to drop a bomb on massive crowds of partying tourists comes just days after concerns involving commercial aircraft were raised.

Several national media outlets reported last week that the intelligence leading to the government's Dec. 21 imposition of the nationwide high terror alert included references to Las Vegas as a possible target.

In perhaps the most alarming account, The Washington Post reported on Friday that unnamed U.S. officials speculated that terrorists might have intended to hijack an Air France flight from Paris to Los Angeles and crash it in Las Vegas.

The Air France routes in question cross the Hudson Bay and eastern Canada before entering airspace over Minnesota, then take a sharp turn southwest toward Southern California.

"The only big city near this route is Las Vegas, which they would consider a nice attractive target," a government official told the Post.

The officials told the Post the al-Qaida network has long considered Las Vegas a top target for a terrorist strike because it sees the city as a bastion of Western lewdness and excess.

Young and Jerry Bussell, Gov. Kenny Guinn's adviser on homeland security, have flatly contradicted the Post report, saying federal officials told them that Los Angeles, not Las Vegas, was the intended target. Young said Monday that authorities still have no specific, credible intelligence that suggests Las Vegas is in terrorists' crosshairs.

Meanwhile, gaming industry operators said their guests can expect few changes in security measures but acknowledged that limited upgrades are being made for New Year's Eve.

"We expect no changes, nothing that would be visible, even though we'll be watching as we always do," Boyd Gaming spokesman Rob Stillwell said.

In one of the few security measures being publicized by authorities, police officials ask celebrators not to tote backpacks, satchels and other large bags with them to the Strip on Wednesday evening. Those who do risk having them searched.

Assistant Sheriff Ray Flynn said police in years past have sometimes invoked the bag search measure but for a different reason.

"In the past, we were looking for glass bottles," Flynn said. "This year, we're looking for something else."

Review-Journal writer Richard Lake and Gaming Wire writer Rod Smith contributed to this report.

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